Brussels, 26/10/11 (Agence Europe) - The Czech prime minister, Petr Necas, announced on Tuesday 25 October that his government would respect the opinion of the legal service of the Council of the EU, which is that the vote on his country's opt-out on the Treaty of Lisbon and the vote on Croatia joining the EU cannot be combined. Originally, the Czech prime minister wanted a single vote on both issues in the two chambers of the parliament. Croatia's accession could have been blocked in the Senate, where the left-wing majority of Social Democrats is opposed to adopting the opt-out on the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, as called for by President Vaclav Klaus.
By request of Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenbeg, the government on Tuesday gave a hearing to the European expert, who stressed that a single vote is not possible, because the two documents have a different legal status and are not equally binding. (CG/transl.fl)